Just kidding, we all look forward to your return. Perhaps you could address the recent study that found reduced worker productivity in OECD countries that raised income tax rates. The study, called Long-Term Changes in Labor Supply and Taxes: Evidence from OECD Countries, 1956-2004 and is avialable by Andrea Raffo (Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, Economic Research Department), Lee Ohanian (UCLA, Economics Department) & Richard Rogerson (Arizona State University, Economics Department), is available on SSRN.

Thank you for your blog. It is geat to read what two great minds think about. I really liked reading about Larry Summers. Very interesting. What you have to say about undergraduate education at Harvard is also interesting.

In your opinion, why is not there more federally funded neuroscientific (neurobiological research) into the so many different types of brain diseases: autism (according to the CDC, 1 in 166 or 150 children), Alzheimers, Parkinson's, ADHD, Learning Disabilities. These diseases are as important as cancer and heart disease, in my view, and should be addressed from both a genetic and environmental point of causation.

As a father with a son on the autistic spectrum, autism appears to be on the rise at a geater cost to society than ever before. Special Ed is one of Chancellor Joel Klein's primary focuses as it pervades the NYC Public School System. We are lucky to have able leaders like Mayor Bloomberg and Chancellor Joel Klein on the education watch here in New York. It really does feel like a pandemic out there having lived with autism since 1993.

To the above poster about labor supply and income tax: Edward Prescott of Arizona State won a Nobel Prize in 2004 for a paper on a very similar subject, about the relation of labor supply and income tax. A tax on labor lowers the demand for labor but leaves consumption fixed. If both consumption and labor are taxed, optimal quantities of both will drop.